Butch Jones may be done at Tennessee, but now isn't the time to fire him

John Crist| 3 years ago

It’s pretty clear that Tennessee coach Butch Jones isn’t going to survive on Rocky Top. There’s too much negative momentum to turn around at this point.

The Volunteers lost another ugly game Saturday, this time 15-9 to a South Carolina team that hadn’t been playing very well on either side of the ball. As you read this column, many are wondering if Jones has coached his players for the last time.

The switch at quarterback — Quinten Dormady out, Jarrett Guarantano in — didn’t have the desired effect, as Guarantano was only 11-of-18 for 133 yards without a touchdown or an interception. Billed as a better athlete than Dormady, he was credited with minus-2 yards rushing on 17 attempts and didn’t appear to know the ins and outs of the system.

Most important, Guarantano appeared to have no instincts for the QB position. He made critical mental errors in crucial situations.

Despite playing so poorly in the second half, UT actually had a chance to steal one from the Gamecocks on the game’s final drive. But Guarantano’s pass to receiver Brandon Johnson from the USC 2-yard line fell incomplete to end the contest.

Yes, Guarantano completed a huge 39-yarder to Johnson in the middle of the field earlier in the possession to give the Vols some life. However, he wasted precious time with a sack on the first play of the drive and then failed to spike the ball later — he robbed himself of at least one snap as a result — with the clock running and no timeouts left.

Even more egregious, running back John Kelly, Tennessee’s most reliable offensive weapon, didn’t touch the ball once down the stretch.

As you read this column, many are wondering if Jones has coached his players for the last time.

The Volunteers worked their way into the red zone four times, but not once did they cross the goal line. They had to settle for three field goals and then came up empty. At no point did Guarantano give the impression that he was in control.

Don’t forget that UT was coming off a bye, too. Jones had an extra seven days to prepare Guarantano for the ‘Cocks — remember all that talk from Jones about having one of the best off weeks in the history of college football? The last time we saw the Vols, they were getting humiliated 41-0 at home by Georgia. They haven’t scored a TD in 10 quarters.

Tennessee just finished a three-game homestand 1-2. The win was an awful one against lowly UMass. The losses were both in SEC play.

While hitting the eject button might sound like a great idea right about now for the Volunteers, in seven days they’re due to lace ’em up in Tuscaloosa. Alabama is No. 1 in the country and not about to take it easy on its cross-division rival.

Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Before the 2017 campaign started, Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin was sitting on the hottest seat in the conference. Not anymore, though. It’s Jones, hands down. The boobirds have been loud at Neyland Stadium the last month — the student section was noticeably empty shortly before kickoff vs. South Carolina — and will only get louder now.

That being said, this isn’t the time to cut bait on Jones. One way or another, UT doesn’t stand a chance against the Crimson Tide.

No more excuses about the roster he inherited. No more excuses about being bitten by the injury bug. No more excuses about not having a signal caller ready behind Joshua Dobbs.

Even if there’s too much pressure on the program and a change simply has to be made, who exactly does the administration elevate to interim coach? First-year offensive coordinator Larry Scott? Second-year defensive coordinator Bob Shoop? No and no.

There is someone on staff with previous head coaching experience at a supposed blue-blood program — I’m using that term very loosely right now for UT — but it’s first-year defensive line coach Brady Hoke. Considering the fact that he won fewer games in each of his four years with the Wolverines, he doesn’t seem like a wise choice.

Besides, what if an interim coach rallies the Vols to a strong finish? After the ‘Bama game, the schedule is quite manageable.

The last thing anyone wants is for a Scott, a Shoop or a Hoke to somehow win the locker room in the short term. Ask LSU fans about that. You’re better off just sticking with Jones and then waiting for the offseason to make a more informed decision.

Say what you will about Jones, but he’s managed to recruit well. According to the composite rankings at 247Sports, he currently has the No. 6 class for 2018 based on current commitments — that’s higher than any other club in the league. Those prospects have committed to Jones, not the Vols, so you’d surely lose a lot of them instantly.

Holding on to Jones for another month and half likely means holding on to those commits. Then if you make the right hire immediately after the regular season, maybe they stick around until National Signing Day.

I’m far from a Jones apologist. This is Year 5 for him in Knoxville. No more excuses about the roster he inherited. No more excuses about being bitten by the injury bug. No more excuses about not having a signal caller ready behind Joshua Dobbs.

Jones has made his own bed, so now he’s forced to sleep in it. His cheesy rhetoric hasn’t helped, of course. First it was the “champions of life” comment. Then it was the “5-star heart” remark. This past week, we were introduced to “leadership reps” — it’s even more ridiculous for me to write than it is for him to say. He’s not fooling anyone.

Still, the #GBO types have to grin and bear it for six more games. Now’s not the time, no matter how much they want it to be.

“Holding on to Jones for another month and half likely means holding on to those commits. Then if you make the right hire immediately after the regular season, maybe they stick around until National Signing Day.”

Crist how can you say that yet SDS post every other day of another recruit decommiting from UT? Reading your articles is like watching turds turn white. So let Jones stay the whole season so all the recruits are gone huh? Makes sense….lol. Does SDS even pay their writers for this crap???

BS you fire him now, right now, and you name an interim. Who cares who the interim is. Make it the water boy, it doesn’t matter. Recruits all know he’s toast. If the plan is to hire s coach who is not coaching right now then you sign him announce it and let recruits and everyone else know who it is. Regardless waiting is stupid.

Gurantano is a talent who obviously is not being coached up…stick with him from now on there’s no use going back to Dormady. The more reps he takes the better he will get but only so far, he needs a QB coach and OC bad.

I think it’s safe to say fire him or keep him until the end of the season, either way they both are unfortunate for anyone who calls themselves a Volunteer. Fire him and risk recruits who did sign because some recruits do actually sign because they like the coaching staff or the promises they have made to them. You will more than likely lose a handful anyway. This is because players will leave because who wants to go to a school with so much up in the air. Don’t do the iterim head coach it only delays the inevitable and doesn’t really help recruiting anyway, in most cases, not all. However, UGA hired Kirby when Alabama still was playing and he was able to hit the ground with recruiting and coach his team too. This sounds absurd considering its still early in the year but still could it work? Hire a Scott Frost publicly but he finishes the year at UCF but helps recruit at UT…wait this a mess..yep your stuck lol

Wrong wrong wrong. Who writes these articles? You fire him immediately to show the team, the university, the fans….everybody, that you are serious about TN football and you will accept what is being displayed. Those kids are committed to the school, conference, and the facilities as much as they are Jones. You tell them to hold on, we’re going to get y’all the cream of the crop, and then you do it. By keeping him you flatline the program even more. Recruits jump ship because of how bad everything is, people don’t show up for games, etc. The only way to pump life in the program is to fire him by tomorrow so a buzz will generate around the program of, ‘oooooooo, who’s the next coach going to be?!?!’ There is not ONE reason to keep him.

That all sounds good except will they open up the check book to get the cream of the crop? What coach is the cream of the crop and will he take the job? They do have to get rid of him now and announce a replacement and try and save the up coming class. Only coach I would want to see kept is Robert Gillespie. How do you get in the red zone 4 times and not score 1 TD smh.

Seriously weak argument! The recruiting class is already falling apart. Keeping Butch around will do nothing to help that. Firing Butch and Scott immediately and placing Hoke as interim does nothing to hurt chances and may in fact help. Chip Kelly is also available and could easily be hired before the season ends, and such an announcement would only help to keep a recruiting class vs keeping a clearly dead Butch. It’s always better to fire someone when they clearly aren’t performing than to keep them around. We have over 20 4 star athletes on the field who simply have not improved. Talent is clearly not the issue. Talent development and in fame coaching clearly are…that can’t be fixed any other way than to fire him immediately.

I’d agree that recruiting is basically the sole consideration in deciding whether to fire Butch or not. But I’m not sure it’s obvious that you hold off.

The decommitments are already happening. Does anyone actually expect Butch to be the coach in January? Any commit who thinks that’ll happen is going to be sorely disappointed. Maybe the rest of the staff may not recruit too hard in the interim period since they may not be around next year. How is that any different than now?

If UT is serious about going after Chip Kelly or Jon Gruden they might as well fire him now, start negotiating, and give the new coach time to salvage something recruiting wise. There may be slim pickings come January with the new December signing period.

No.. Just No.. Alabama is going to beat us by 60+ no matter who the coach is. It’s not like they will beat us any worse with an interim HC than they would with Butch. I could go out there as coach and lose by 60. Pretty much anyone could. We lost a 4 star recruit this week. I expect that will keep happening as long as Butch is around.

If we fire him now, we may lose some recruits initially. But if we follow up with a home run hire, we will have plenty of time to win them back… That ONLY works with a big name hire though. If they are just gonna give some mid major coach a promotion, then it doesn’t really matter when we fire him. I’m still optimistic that we will go all-in on this next hire.

I’m not worried about the interim “winning the locker room”. Even if they win out, everyone will know it was due to the weak November schedule.

Memphis vol your right but wasting your time trying to be rational with these fools. Trust me, argued for 2 years that Jones sucks but no one would listen. Bama would score 60 on dang near anyone right now no matter who the HC is. Sorry thing is Jones is gonna scamper away with $9 million for what? Dobbs did a whole lot more tjan Jones.

Aside from the recruiting implications, what is the impact of Butch’s buy-out? Can UT offer big-time coach dollars while paying $9M for Butch to go play golf? Tennessee has gone cheap on three HC hires in a row. Additionally, say you get a big-name, high-dollar HC – there’s still the matter of paying significantly to attract high-quality coordinators and assistants to a new gig. You can bet it’ll be more expensive than the current staff payroll. Then there’s the reality that, to compete with Bama and UGA, you have no choice but to follow the growing model of loading up on consultants and advisory staff outside the NCAA coaching lines. Doing this right – which is the ONLY real option for UT after Kiffen/Dooley/Jones – will be a very expensive proposition. Will the administration bite the financial bullet?

This is ridiculous. How could the rest of the season be worse than the 1st half has been? An interim might actually give us a chance to win a few games. It would also give us a chance to start talking to Chip Kelly or others not coaching another team. I think it would also give recruits some hope that we might get an elite coach and might make them consider sticking with their commitment to the Vols until they find out who the next coach is going to be.